Afekia's Memory World
by ArlieseBirchwood
Summary: What happened originally? And what did AFEKIA do in his quest for revenge against the Pharaoh?
1. I: The Creation of Hatred

Afekia ran from the underground chamber as fast as he could, not caring if his footsteps were heard. After what he had just seen, he didn't care what anyone did to him anymore. Afekia's tears silently trickled down his face. _Mother! _He thought in anguish, thinking of what he just witnessed…

"_No! Please, stop it!" His mother cried. "I have a ten-year old son at home! He…"_

"_Shut up, woman!" A soldier harshly shouted in response. "Do you think we care about what happens to the brats of thieves and scoundrels who probably deserved this long ago?"_

"_Please, sir, have some mercy!" Afekia's mother shouted. Although tears streamed down her face and her voice was terrified, she still tried to retain a calm composure. "I have some trinkets at home. They are very valuable…"_

_The soldier savagely backhanded Afekia's mother across her face. "I am an employee of the pharaoh! He is God! Do you expect me to commit such blasphemy?"_

_Another soldier chuckled, before letting out a full, insane roar. His tongue drooped out of his mouth, reminding Afekia of a starved, malicious snake. "Enough of this talk!" He quickly twisted the woman's wrist behind her back, and Afekia's mother shouted in unadulterated pain. "Off you go!" He said gleefully, before pushing her towards the large pot in the center of the room. _

"No!" _Bit out Afekia's mother. "My son! My…" She then went limp in the soldier's hands. All the life seemed to drain out of her, and she blankly stared at the cauldron ahead. The last words Afekia heard his mother say was: "Afekia? Is that you?" before she fell into the cauldron, the most peaceful expression on her face that Afekia had ever seen. This quickly changed into pure anguish. She screamed as her skin turned brown, then sobbed as her flesh melted off of her. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head. Then Afekia's mother remained silent. _

_The last memory Afekia had of that scene was the insane laughter of the soldiers, and their unremorseful, blank eyes… _


	2. II: The Cache of Treasure

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, but I do own "Afekia's Memory World" and the OC in here. Yay me!!!

_I can't take this anymore…_Afekia thought. Although he was savagely beaten by the pharaoh's employees before, he never felt as pathetic and defeated as he did now. He collapsed on the ruins of Kul Elna, and sobbed freely into his dirt-stained hands. _What should I do_? Afekia thought. _I don't have any food, and it would take days to reach another city…I'll hate to think of how long it would take to arrive on foot. _

"Are you wallowing in self-pity again?"

Afekia head snapped up so quickly, a bone cracked. "Fa…father?" Afekia gasped, wincing.

"Turn around, and you'll know," a malicious voice said.

Afekia unwrapped his arms from where they had been around his legs, and stood from his fetal position. He then took a quick and quiet breath to prepare himself for whoever…or whatever…was behind him. What he saw made him nearly choke on his own annoyingly omnipresent saliva, a product of not drinking water for two days.

A fully equipped, smirking soldier stood before him. "Are you ready to die then, weakling?" He said.

"Father? You became a_ soldier_?" Afekia asked, horrified.

Afekia's father scowled. "Of course not. You know how I feel about this wretched government…and the absurd notions that our beloved pharaoh is a _God_. I took these clothes and equipment off of a dead soldier." Seeing Afekia's horrified expression, he let out a short bark of laughter. "And no, I did not kill him."

"Why did you ask me if I wanted to die, then?" Asked Afekia quietly.

"You know how I feel about this world. Only the strong survive. The people who feel sorry for themselves and are fragile are easy victims for those who are willing to use anyone for their own gains. I was just asking a rhetorical question to mock your usual lack of guts…but don't complain now. There were some other things the soldier had that I'm sure you'll be very glad to see…"

Afekia's father shrugged off the knapsack that hung loosely around his shoulders. He quickly untied the knot, and dumped the contents onto the floor. Afekia's eyes widened. "Food! And _beer_!" He cried in almost indecent enthusiasm.

"Help yourself," Afekia's father said nonchalantly. He grabbed a canteen of beer, and chugged down the national drink. He blanched. "Ugh…I'm getting sick of anything made of wheat and barley. But I still have to keep hydrated. It's not like we can keep staying in a dump like this…not that this hasn't been a dump from the start…" At this, he laughed bitterly. "But I realized this place has gotten a lot worse. There are a lot of cracks in the houses, so we can't keep the elements out. I can't just leave you here alone when I'm searching for provisions. Where the hell is your mother and the rest of the idiots who are supposed to live in this ghetto? It looks like we've been ransacked!"

Afekia abruptly stopped drinking his beer. "Um…father…"

"What?" The older man asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"Mother….she's…._dead_," Afekia trembled.

For a long time, there was only silence between the father and son. Then, the graying adult stood up. His eyes were cold and steely, and his shoulders were slightly trembling. But the trembles weren't frightened or shaken. They were ominous, and expressed a barely contained rage that Afekia knew all too well.

"Bakura," the father crisply said. Afekia looked at his father, surprised at the sudden use of his nickname. His father only used it during affectionate moments when he was proud of his son, like when Afekia killed a snake that was later enjoyed by his family or stolen a batch of figs, much-sought after Egyptian snacks.

"Yes, father?"

"We need to get out of here. Those hypocritic scumbags are even lower than I thought," the man hissed.

"How?" Afekia asked. His father only shrugged.

"Good transportation," he said. "You carry the food," he shot at Afekia, and abruptly left the slab of granite they were sitting on to turn into an alley.

Afekia gaped at him before scrambling to get the food into the knapsack his father brought. _Father? _He thought dazedly.

"Hurry!" His father's voice piercingly cut through his thoughts.

"I'm coming!" Afekia shouted. _But I am not leaving just yet…_he thought with the first ounce of determination he had in two long, strenuous days. He dashed into his former home, and headed to the fireplace. He quickly patted the bricks on the fireplace mantle. Afekia felt one slightly sink, and he pulled it out. Afekia gasped, because inside the cache was a golden crown with the Eye of Horus inscribed on the front. It looked like something royalty would wear. But that was not all. The crown was illuminated by a green, surreal light. After thrusting his hand to the back of the hidden compartment, Afekia discovered the source was a hoard of…emeralds? Afekia frowned. _But I never heard of even the most lustrous jewels _glowing _before…_

"_Afekia_!!!"

"Coming, father!!!" Afekia yelled. He scooped the jewels and crown into his arms, and struggled to not let them all topple to the ground. _How are the stones so heavy…? _He thought dazedly. He sprinted out of the building and into the alley he thought his father fled to, hoping he wasn't too upset.

He stopped when he saw he was just inches from bumping into someone wearing black robes.

"Excuse me," Afekia said politely, sidestepping the stranger, before he realized that there was _supposed _to be no one in this village except him and his father…who was wearing the plain beige robes of the pharaoh's army.

Afekia's eyes widened as they swept past the tall, robed stranger and to a group of people who were dressed just like him…with his father in the middle of the throng.

"You'll do well to remember not to be late again," the man he bumped into said brusquely. "We have to conduct a raid soon, but I think you'll be forgiven this time. You have a good stash, after all."

"Thanks," Afekia said.

"Hand it over."

"What?!" Afekia almost growled, his eyes immediately going over to his father.

"Do what he says," Afekia's father replied. "He'll take care of it much better than we ever could, anyway."

_Oh well. Those weird jewels were getting heavy anyway,_ Afekia tried to think positively. He unceremoniously dumped the jewels into the leering stranger's arms, and felt a little satisfied when he saw the man stagger under the weight.


	3. III: The Pack of Thieves

"So, where are we going?" Afekia asked his father. Afekia had his arms wrapped around his father's waist, since there wasn't any spare horses for him. For some reason, this seemed to annoy the older man.

"A raid," he answered icily. "If you listened earlier, you would've already known that."

"Aww…don't be too hard on him, Bakura!" One of the cloaked men said. "You know how Odion feels about the little kids."

"And you know _our boss _feels whenever someone addresses him so informally," snarled Afekia's father. "Except when it's by his personal favorite, Malik…I'm assuming you're basing your opinion of our boss's opinion of younger kids on _that _brat?"

The man Afekia bumped into earlier hissed at Bakura. "Don't talk about our lord in that way. As I remember, didn't he supply your whole village with food?"

Bakura silently glared at him. "You know the agreement we made on _that _deal."

A cold silence hung in the atmosphere after that remark, even though the Egyptian sun was mercilessly sweltering as usual.

_Hm. _Afekia thought wearily, after what seemed like hours of monotonous silence under the wide wings of Horus, their sun god. _Father must not have wanted to look soft-hearted in front of his new group of friends. He always thought it was important to at least _appear _intimidating, since he thought people would pick on you less. I wonder who are father's new friends. They're so…enigmatic. _Afekia's eyes strayed towards the long, black robes they wore. _And a little irrational. Don't they feel suffocated in their clothes? _Afekia suddenly realized he caught the eye of one of the men he was staring at, and hastily looked away.

"Why were you looking at me?" The man asked testily. _Oh _goody_; it's that brusque man I bumped into earlier, _Afekia thought sarcastically. He frowned. He knew he shouldn't behave this antagonistically towards someone he just met, but something about this man just ticked him off.

"I was wondering why you wear those clothes," Afekia replied.

"Well, we thought it was better than wearing no clothes at all."

"_Bes_!" The brusque man cut out sharply.

"What, _Ptah_?" Bes asked innocently. _That's the man who verbally sparred with father earlier_, Afekia realized.

Ptah glared at him, before fixating it on Afekia. "Why is your father named Bakura?" He countered mockingly.

"He isn't named Bakura; it's just a nickname," Afekia instantly replied. "He sometimes uses it for me, but it came from another civilization. Father met this weird, pale man with small, slanted eyes when he was taking some of our goods to the market one day. The man said he came from the government of 'Japan', so he could trade with us and record his observations. He mostly met father at night, because people later discovered that father came from a village of thieves and were unwilling to trade with him. The Japanese man...I can't remember his name…traded with father during this time. He said father was very brave to help out his village like that, and gave father his nickname. 'Baku' roughly translates to 'tapir', an animal the Japanese associate with a demon or spirit from folklore. The tapir is nocturnal, and their spirit form mostly keeps bad dreams from people so they could sleep peacefully. The Japanese man thought father kept away the fears…or nightmares…of our people by helping support them. That pasty man (this comment caused him to receive a radioactive glare from his father) also claimed father helped solve his sleeping problems and have better dreams, because he inspired him so much. 'Ra' means good or skilled. Father liked this nickname so much, he started asking others to call him this instead of his usual name." _And sometimes he uses it for me…when he thinks I'm truly "my father's son". _

A silence reigned over their group again.

This time it was soon broke by Bes, though. "Ptt-chyah, Ptah, you just got schooled by an eight-year old!!!" The others laughed.

"Hey, I'm ten!" Afekia said indignantly. This just caused the men to laugh harder.

Ptah unsurprisingly seemed to be one of the few exceptions who did not find this funny. "That was…interesting," he sarcastically said. "I almost fell off my horse at the _excitement…_what really saved me was when I heard a name basically composed of 'helpful' and 'skilled' was sometimes applied to a whimpering leech like you."

"Ptah!" A man with dirty blonde hair and serious slate-gray eyes warningly said.

"What, Ramses?" Ptah spat out. "Just look at him…even his own father shies away from him. If you ask me, we should have just left him in that dump to die."

Afekia's father stiffened. "_Ptah_…" he growled.

"Er…hey. We all knew Bakura was just trying to act tough in front of us," Bes said nervously, trying to pass this off as something trivial. "Or he just got _too _into roleplaying a bastard with his soldier uniform on…"

"That wouldn't be hard to do," Ptah sneered. "For him."

Ramses quickly kicked his horse's side, and rode to the front of their pack. He then reined his horse in sharply, effectively stopping their group. "That's enough, Ptah. I think that extra pack you got from the little one is making you a little irrational (_A little? _Afekia thought, annoyed.) and irritated. Let's rest our horses for now; when we're done, give the bag to me."

Bes interjected: "Shouldn't each of us carry some of the bag's contents? That way, you won't be 'a little irrational and irritated'; if you're attacked on the way, we wouldn't lose what could later be major gold, too."

Afekia looked at Bes, impressed.

Bes caught his eye. "Hey, why are the new people surprised when I always come up with a good idea?" He asked.

"I wasn't surprised," Afekia said defensively, embarrassed. "I was…er…just wondering about your clothes again."

"That had to be the worse lie ever invented…" Bes said, smirking, as he stopped his horse like the rest of the men were doing. "But we wear these since they're dramatic and intimidating…just what we need whenever we have raids. They're also really comfy when the night comes, because we blend in with the dark. They also protect us from the cold from the night."

"Why don't use fires?" Afekia asked.

"We don't want to get caught by the pharaoh's men," Bes said lightly. "We're wanted thieves."

Afekia gaped at him. _Father...? _He thought.

"Well, I'm proud to be my father's son," the older Bakura said in a steely tone. "Are you?"

"So, whenever I stole something…" Afekia said, horrified. "And you whispered encouraging words to me…was it because you _wanted_ me to commit the same mistakes our predecessors did? We got trapped in Kul Elna because of our ancestors' crimes!"

His father looked at him unremorsefully. "What _used _to be our village needed more than one breadwinner."

"Why couldn't we just trade with other cities that didn't know of our identity?"

"Can you even _remember _how isolated Kul Elna is from the rest of the world? It would take too long for us to travel to the next city, and even then, they would eventually find out about our history!"

"Hey!" One eavesdropping man called. "Does your son have something against thieves?"

Ptah snorted. "Obviously, Thoth."

"Well, get over it," a brunette man said frostily.

"Are _all _of you eavesdropping?" The rapidly graying man asked irritably.

"Well, _I'm _not," Bes said with equal irritableness."You just cut me out of your conversation."

Afekia's father shrugged. "Well, see if I care!" He abruptly turned away from Afekia, and then turned his head so Afekia could see his threatening glare. "And you _will _accept my colleagues," he said ominously, before walking away from his son.

Thoth, a stocky, bearded man with carrot-orange hair, gave out a low whistle. "Trust Bakura to have a screwed up son like this," he said, and Ptah and the brunette man snickered. "Come on, men, let's go play Senet. I see Phoenix already has a game going…"

"Like always," Ptah said dryly, causing them to snicker again.

They walked away, leaving Afekia isolated from the rest of the group in the sifting desert sands. Afekia stared after them, and was about to chase after them…wanting to take out his built-up anger on _somebody_, but then his world was suddenly encased in overpowering darkness.

A/N: Thanks to you two reviewers. I know I gave you two really lazy replies, so...sorry. :( I actually love your encouraging reviews--they make me feel toasty. :] Anyways...(awkward silence)....if you google "kokoro no Naka - series FAQ" and click on the first link you see, you'll see the info I got for Bakura's name. Happy Valentine's Day! ^.^


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